It’s not that surprising. You can have a depth of talent but not necessarily have the actual best 15 players in the county.
Obviously Na Piarsaigh contribute a lot to Limerick but there was only one starting in the AI final in 2018.
Now tbf, the Mahonys are unavailable for selection also.
There were four NAP used during the final though and they were used throughout the championship pretty much
Stephen O’Keefe is Ballygunner as well @FlakeAway and they’d a couple on the bench too I think. 5 from a panel of 26 is no joke
Na P had 2 starters the last day .
NAP aren’t miles out ahead of everyone in Limerick like Ballygunner are in Waterford though
I suppose we didn’t have a famous pop singer die on us the week of the All Ireland to motivate us.
Forgot him, yeah they have a few actually tbf with Mahony out too.
I don’t think there were any other Ballygunner fellas on the bench. SOKie is the only member of Derek’s barbecue club left at this stage.
Peter Hogan no? He’s in hard luck not be starting
You might be right though I don’t recall seeing him on the list of subs.
They obviously don’t have enough cut about them.
That’s true, I’m just saying that club dominance doesn’t necessarily mean guaranteed starters all over.
Barry Coughlan & Shane O;Sullivan are retired, Wayne Hutchinson is getting on now, Philip Mahony is obviously retired too, Pauric injured.
Peter Hogan is lively but not obviously better than what they already have, he’s very light too.
And then the likes of Billy O’Keeffe & Mikey Mahony; good club hurlers but not necessarily top intercounty players.
Sure when we couldn’t do it for Val Doonican and Brendan Bowyer we were at nothing.
oh wakka do wakka dey
She had passed previous to this.
Ballyea is the perfect example to supplement your argument.
Limerick used 6/7 players in the 2018 AI final that weren’t from senior clubs
Ballygunner are a team of development squad hurlers. What you get when you have a large population allied to a good structure. A team of big athletic technically excellent hurlers. No Mavericks. No surprise that Dessie Hutchinson spent his formative years in Brighton.
Mungret in Limerick are not dissimilar; haven’t had the same level of dominance as Ballygunner obviously but have a big population, have had plenty of underage success and are definitely a coming team but haven’t produced a really top intercounty player yet to drag them to the next level.
I would say that Ballygunner are very similar to Na Piarsaigh and obviously beat them in Munster a couple of years back but in fairness to NaP, Peter Casey & Shane Dowling are the type of top-level forwards that can win you matches.
Monaleen similar to Mungret?
I think so, yeah.
Obviously they have made the setup to senior and have had senior intercounty players in La Touche, Lyons & Power. And ALTC was possibly the difference when they first made their push to senior. But in terms of making the next step-up to Senior A, even one top intercounty player would make a huge difference. There was a lot of hope for Conor Nicholas but maybe injuries have hindered his development somewhat.